The Non-Loved
by Ophelia Joane
Summary: Merope Gaunt lived a very lonely life that was void of love... much like her son.


_A/N: Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition as Beater 1 for the Appleby Arrows. _

_Prompts: (quote) "It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not."__― André Gide, __Autumn Leaves_

_(picture) fs70/f/2012/170/1/5/creepy_kyubey_by_a_ _

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

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"Morfin tells me you have been stalking that rich muggle trash."

Merope's eyes widened as she turned around from the window she was currently staring out at, to turn her father who had a disgusted sneer on his face. "I-it's not what you think, father."

Marvolo Gaunt stepped closer to Merope. "It better not," he started, "If I found out that you had any feelings for a filthy muggle, there would be hell to pay. Both to him and you. Just because you are my daughter does not mean you mean anything to me," he said, then stepped even closer to her, adding, "You stupid squib."

Merope, afraid that her father would try to hit her, slipped around him and ran for the door. She ran through the streets of Little Hangleton and stopped before she reached the Riddle house, where the boy she fancied lived. Tom Riddle.

Taking a risk, Merope walked through the gates onto the property, and up to the house where she knocked on the door. An older women answered, and she figured it to be Tom's mother, Mrs. Riddle. Pursing her lips, the women narrowed her eyes at the girl. "And what business do you have being here at this hour? My family and I are in the middle of dinner," she said sharply.

Merope gulped, and lowered her eyes, "I-I'm sorry, I'll just go then," she said.

Mrs. Riddle must have found something humane in her heart, for she then decided to ask the girl inside. "Would you like some food, my, you look like you haven't ate in ages!" she cried, her attitude taking a one-eighty.

Nodding, Merope followed her inside until she found herself in the dining room, with three pair of eyes looking at them.

"Please, take a seat," Mrs. Riddle said, gracefully sliding into one herself. Merope did so, and spent the rest of the night having the best dinner of her life, as well as having Tom walking her home.

_**~O~**_

That became a common affair, Merope having dinner at the Riddle house once a week. And the more and more Merope went, the more and more she fell in love with Tom. Although, she could tell he had no interest in her, especially when conversation one night led to talk about the new woman in his life. All Merope gathered about her was that she was rich, beautiful, and kind. Everything that the Riddles were looking for for Tom's future wife. Merope could not compare.

Though she was pureblood, her family was poor from generations of inbreeding and cockiness. Nor her brother or her father had any special talents, and while Merope was not ugly, she was not especially beautiful either. Quite plain, actually.

So when Merope feared that the love of her life would never love her back, she came to a conclusion: love potions. She found that she had a special talent when it came to potions, which was surprising because she had never shown much magical ability at all. Merope thought that if she make could love potions for a couple months, eventually the real Tom would fall in love with her.

However, Merope was still unsure about the plan, knowing that her father and brother would never approve of her having a romantic relationship with a muggle. That all changed, though, when they were sent to Azkaban for torturing and murdering muggles. Now, Merope had hope, and went through with making the love potion.

_**~O~**_

One night, while Tom was under the influence of her love potion, they were taking a stroll around Little Hangleton, under the moonlight. Merope blushed every time Tom's hand and her hand would brush, and when he eventually held her hand, she was positively scarlet.

They stopped underneath a big oak tree, and sat down on the ground next to it. Watching the stars (or at least trying to), Merope was distracted by Tom playing with her hair.

"What's that?" he asked, looking down at her neck.

Merope grabbed at the chain by her collarbone, and ran her fingers down it until she came to the ring that was on. "Oh," she whispered, "Just a family heirloom."

"It's very nice," Tom said, and Merope smiled and bit her lip.

Taking off her necklace and sliding the ring off the chain, she held Tom's hand out. "Here, you keep it," she said as she put it on him. Tom smiled and leaned in, kissing her softly on the cheek.

"Thanks," he said, "I think I just might."

_**~O~**_

"Tom!"

"You disgusting wen-"

"No, Tom, please! Let me explain!"

There was a loud crash as another chair was thrown at the wall. Tom Riddle, the love of Merope's life, was standing in her living room and destroying it.

Tom walked to Merope, glaring down at her. "You did explain! You used magic! How dare you- I can not believe I-" he grunted and then whispered in a softer voice, "You did something to me. I know, because otherwise I would have never let myself touch the likes of you." Scowling, Tom headed towards the door, deciding he had had enough.

"Tom, wait."

He didn't. He reached his hand out, ready to open the door and leave.

"I'm pregnant."

He paused.

"And it's your child," she breathed out.

Gulping, Tom turned around, his face unreadable. "That sounds like a problem you will have to deal with. But let me make this understood, if any word of you being pregnant with my child gets out in this town, I will ruin your life, you witch," he spat.

Merope, to the point of tears, croaked out, "Why can't you just love me? I can be whatever you want! You don't have to marry me, I'll be your mistress. Anything, Tom, I will do it!"

"It's better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not," he said, not meeting her eyes. Looking down at his hand, he took off the ring that had been there for months. Throwing it at her, he watched as she didn't even try to move out of the way and just let it hit her before falling to the ground.

"I hate you. I will never, ever love you." The door slammed as Tom walked out, and Merope felt herself fall to the ground, clutching her stomach and sobbing.

_**~O~**_

Merope did the only thing she could bring herself to do that night, and that was leave town with nothing but a bunch of clothes, some food, Salazar Slytherin's Locket (which she would later sell for more money) and the only galleons, sickles, and knuts she could find. She would try to to go to London and start a life there. However, once she got closer to her due date, her judgement was impaired by all the hormones she was going through, and Merope thought that somehow she could convince Tom that he loved her. When she travelled to Little Hangleton, however, she never got the chance to say anything because her water had broke.

One of the last things Merope ever thought was how no one had loved her, and no one ever would. Knowing that she could hold on and fight for her life, or just finally pass, was an easy choice for her to make. She had already knew what she wanted to call her son, though.

And just as Tom Riddle Jr would never know his mother, or his father, or much about his family until he got out of the orphanage and was sent to Hogwarts eleven years later, the "family heirloom" lay forgotten, in the abandoned Gaunt house. Still laying on the same spot on the ground where Tom Riddle Sr had thrown it.

It was many years before it was found by Tom Riddle Jr and made into one of his first horcruxes, and even more before anybody ever figured out the actual secret to it- that it actually possessed the Resurrection Stone.


End file.
